Conan O'Brien Honors Reiners at $4 Million Gala

Caption: Conan O’Brien at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Credit: Adam Chitayat / WikiPortraits / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Conan O’Brien said the loss of Rob and Michele Reiner still catches him several times a week. At a November 8 charity gala, he described continuing their work as a way to keep the couple close.

The Children’s Institute Cape & Gown Gala brought more than 600 guests to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and raised a record $4 million, according to PEOPLE. The evening paired remembrance with a new award recognizing advocacy for children and families.

“It’s so devastating and surreal that Rob and Michele are not with us anymore,” O’Brien told the gathering. “It leaves you feeling very hollow.”

Remembering friends through the work they valued

O’Brien said supporting the Children’s Institute offered friends a practical way to remain connected to the Reiners. The organization, rather than a new entertainment project, was the focus of his remarks.

He had grown close to the couple along with his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien. In an earlier interview with The New Yorker, recalled in PEOPLE’s report, he described the shock of learning they had died after saying good night to them only hours earlier.

Rob, Michele and their son Nick had attended O’Brien’s holiday party on December 13, 2025. The couple were found dead at their Los Angeles home the next day.

Nick Reiner was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The charges are allegations, not convictions. The gala focused on his parents’ friendships and charitable commitments rather than the criminal case.

Their children introduce a new honor

Jake and Romy Reiner presented the inaugural Michele & Rob Reiner Champion for Change Award to Jamie Lee Curtis. The award was created with their aunt, Children’s Institute president and CEO Martine Singer, to recognize the couple’s decades of advocacy.

Curtis was honored for her own work supporting children and families. Her charitable initiative My Hand In Yours has raised nearly $2 million for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, PEOPLE reported.

That fundraising is separate from the $4 million raised at the Children’s Institute gala. The two totals represent different initiatives benefiting different organizations.

Singer described the Reiners’ generosity as extending beyond their own family to children more broadly. Curtis also paid tribute to the energy and conviction they brought to their lives and causes.

A gathering built around continuing, not only remembering

Chelsea Handler spoke about sustaining the couple’s charitable commitments, while John Mayer performed. Their participation brought the evening’s entertainment and tributes back to the same purpose: maintaining support for the work the Reiners championed.

For O’Brien, joining that effort provided an answer to the recurring sense of absence. For the organization, the night produced a record fundraising total and the first presentation of an award bearing the couple’s names.

References: PEOPLE - O’Brien reflects on the Reiners at Children’s Institute gala